Chantal Blaak takes solo victory at Boels Ladies Tour: It was a very long day in the break

Sep 02 2018 12:47 am CET

Photo of Chantal Blaak by Boels-Dolmans

Chantal Blaak (Boels-Dolmans) has taken the victory at the fifth stage of the Boels Ladies Tour. The World Champion took a solo victory in Sittard on the last racing day she wears the rainbow jersey.

The stage was 158.4 kilometres long and started with several attacks but none was successful until Chantal Blaak, Roxane Knetemann (Ale Cipollini), Eugenie Duval (FDJ) and Pernille Matthiesen (Sunweb), managed to break free.

At around 50 kilometres to go, Amalie Dideriksen (Boels-Dolmans), Janneke Ensing (Ale Cipollini) and Charlotte Becker (Hitec) joined the front group. At the last climb of the day, Blaak accelerated again and managed to create a gap with the others, while Dideriksen took charge of neutralising the attempts of the other escapees.

The World Champion crossed the finish line on her own, 46 seconds ahead of the reduced group, in which Giorgia Bronzini (Cylance Pro Cycling) was the fastest at the sprint. She was followed by Lucinda Brand (Sunweb), Lotte Kopecky (Lotto Soudal) and Marta Bastianelli (Ale Cipollini).

"I am very happy with this," said Blaak. "It was a very long day in the break. I was actually there to put the pressure on the other teams because we hoped to be able to jump up in the GC. Megan (Guarnier), Anna (van der Breggen) and Amy (Pieters) were still in the top 15 overall, so we were mainly concerned with forcing other teams to work. It was just my job today to keep on riding."

This is the third victory for Boels-Dolmans in three days. "That says something about the teamwork," the rider commented. "We work together really well and are all in good shape. It makes racing even nicer, so I complete this race with a very good feeling. Being able to finish off my year in the rainbow like this, that's just cool."

Annemiek van Vleuten (Mitchelton-Scott) keeps the GC lead with one individual time trial to go.